April 2016 Update and Our Last Post (sort of)

Once again I apologize for the lack of photos. Life has been crazy busy and we also have a new tablet that isn't as easy to just upload pictures from our camera onto!
Well, in case you missed hearing the news, we are moving to Oregon! Justin got a job as an associate pastor of youth and family ministries at First Baptist Church of Brownsville, Oregon. It is an awesome little town in an agricultural community (lots of grass seed, hazelnut groves, and sheep, sheep, sheep!) in the Willamette Valley.
We are rejoicing at God's plan being laid out for us but also a little nervous about leaving Alaska and our friends and family. However, we can already see that God is laying out a new net of support for us already and we are thankful! People at the church in Brownsville have just simply poured out love on us at every moment of both our visits there.
On May 7th Justin and a friend will drive a Uhaul truck and begin the passage down the Alcan. On the 9th I will fly out with the kids and a friend (Thanks Aaron and Chelsea for your gracious offer to help us!) and hopefully Justin will have beat us to Oregon and will be waiting for us when we get there. It's about a 45 hour drive so he won't be resting much on the way!
As far as this blog, I am intending this to be our last real post. God has been pushing me for a long time to start my own personal blog that goes a little more in-depth about life and lessons I'm learning, and while that intimidates me, I know He's given me a love of writing for a reason and I must obey--even if I feel like I have no idea what to write, and that no one would care to read it!
So once I set up that blog, I'll post the address on here so you can find it, and I'll also be posting it on facebook.

Here are some praises of the last month or so, and some ways you can be praying for us:

Praises:
-That God is sending us to a state we've always wanted to live in, we just didn't think it would be this soon. Isn't He good??
-That we were able to meet with most of our supporters in Alaska and have a good time of fellowship and give them updates. We thank God for all of you who faithfully gave money and time in prayer in order to help us stay in ministry here! You know who you are!
-For God's provision through an arduous past 9 months of job searching and various other ups and downs. We know He will continue to sustain us!

Prayer Requests:-Right now our biggest prayer request is housing. We're moving in 11 days...and we have no place to live yet! For different reasons, the rental housing market in Brownsville and surrounding communities is incredibly slim (and it doesn't help that we have 2 dogs that are non-negotiable).
We have a couple of possibilities that have popped up, but please pray that we can find something that fits us that we can move right into...and soon!
-Health insurance is another issue that would maybe not be so pressing except that I'm due to have a baby in a couple of months and would like to have some established health care as soon as possible. Without insurance, it's hard to know where to look since my preferred birth method (out of hospital) accepts different plans depending on where you go. Pray that things move quickly and we can have health insurance soon!
-Pray for travel safety for Justin and Aaron as they drive the long road to Oregon with not much rest. Pray that the truck will hold up well and the road conditions will be good...and maybe for a few photogenic bears along the way! ;)
Thank you for your prayers and we will continue to plead for them! It is often the smallest type of consistent work that moves mountains and that is what prayer is. So thanks and please continue!

February 18th Update

                                       Evie and Norah are very experienced tea party-makers!


It has been a while...I skipped the month of January and didn't post anything! :(
We are doing well and continuing to wait patiently for God to provide a job in a new place. We have been talking to a church in Oregon for quite a while and Justin and I will be going to visit the church and the area at the beginning of March to see if that's where God is taking us. It's exciting!

                                Some wild children excited to go sledding! We've got plenty of snow up here,
                                  and decently warm temperatures. The sun has finally come back to Alaska,
                                  and right now we get several hours of sunshine through our windows each
                                  day before the sun dips back below our mountain horizon.

Having fun sledding with the dogs

We don't really get to see sunsets, but there are some nice views like this!

Mischevious boy doing some "tummy-bogganing". I'm not sure
where the kids came up with that phrase but it makes sense!

Norah's 5th birthday was January 31st. Here is the happy birthday girl with some of her presents!

We finally took an updated family picture...the quality is questionable but you can see all our faces! ;)

Here's how you can be praying for us right now:

-Praise:
We got my 20-week scan this week and discovered we're
having a BOY! Praise God that the ultrasound showed a beautifully healthy baby. I'm also happy to be halfway finished!-Prayers:
-Victory is in the process of finding a new camp director. Pray that God would give direction in seeking the right candidate and that he'll be someone truly willing to be used for God's purposes here.

-There are a lot of unknowns and our 'timeline' for moving is getting short. (We need to be able to secure a job, move, and settle in to a new home this spring, before baby #4 comes; unpacking and settling in brings its own stresses without throwing a newborn and a weepy postpartum mama into the mix!)
While we're not at all worried about God using His perfect timing, please pray for us as there are a lot of details like moving from AK to the lower 48, what type of housing we'll be able to get, a new vehicle that we will be searching for, affording all this, and plenty of other things to think about that we are excited to see God fit perfectly into place! Pray for us to sit back and watch God work instead of letting ourselves dwell on worrying about it!

-Support: While we know we'll only be here at camp another few months, our support has dropped off, and we are still depending on that for our income! Pray for God to encourage hearts to give faithfully. THANK YOU to our dear friends who have been so generous the whole time we've been here! You are an integral part of our ministry and our lives!

God is good!!

25 Questions with the Hostetter Kids

Merry Christmas! I'm going to make our update short because I've got some fun interviews to share. It's turned into a tradition for us to conduct these 25-question interviews with the kids. (Grady participated this year...well, maybe 'participated' is too enthusiastic of a word. You can only get so much focus from a 2-year old.) So here are some updates on our life!-Life in general is crazy and fun and chaotic as usual. Justin has stepped back somewhat out of his directorial role at camp, still doing lots of program, but he's also been asked to step in and help with maintenance since they are shorthanded in that area. That's been a new experience for him.
-All is still and quiet on the job hunting front because of the Christmas season. We are in process with a couple of different churches but we have nothing definite yet. It's hard to feel like we're in limbo so you could pray that God helps us to be patient, and to remain diligent and faithful in our ministry while we're here.
-Baby Hostetter #4 is happily growing and I'm still down with morning sickness, though the end is in sight. Our official due date is July 5th...so expect a birth announcement sometime around the 15th. ;)


Evie's Interview(Evie sits perched on the edge of her barstool, getting up and down and trying to look at the computer screen as I type, asking me to change her answers when she isn't satisfied with what she said.)

1. How old are you? 7. You know that.
2. What makes you happy? Getting to sleep in my parents' room.
3. What makes you sad? Getting a whupping.
4. What makes you laugh? Christmas? I mean, presents? Laughing for joy. How about that laughing.
5. What do you like to draw? All sorts of things.
6. How old is Mommy?  28.
7. How old is Daddy? 34.
8. What is your favorite thing to do? I like baking my own cake.
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? A schoolteacher or a ballet teacher.
10. What are you really good at? That's hard to think about it. I'm good at school.
11. What is your favorite food? Pizza and ice cream. And soda. And you have to add ranch in there.
12. What is your favorite Christmas song? Deck the Halls.
13. What do you hope you get for Christmas? Um, everything.  A Barbie Dreamhouse. And I need a new tea set.
14. What does Daddy do for work? Daddy works at Victory Bible Camp. I mean he's the program director. No, now he works in maintenance. 
15. What does Mommy do for work? Helps take care of the children.
16. Do you know why we have Christmas? We have Christmas to celebrate that Jesus was born.
17. Where do you live? I live in Victory Bible Camp.
18. Where is your favorite place to go? I like going to visit Grammie in Kenai.
19. What are you going to do on Christmas? We're gonna be at Grammie's house opening presents and jumping on people so they can wake up so we can open presents. (Starts demonstrating how she'll yell at her uncles to wake up.)20. Who are your friends? Alison, Lucy, Tate and Tovin, Eli and Gabe, Blake and Cody, Luke and Cody, I might not be able to fit all my friends on here...Delaney, and one more...Bethany. Is that too many? I have too many friends.
21. What is your favorite thing about bathtime? The hot warm bath. I love how it's so warm.
22. What are your favorite books? The Bad Beginning, I like that one a lot, and the book I'm reading, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
23. What is something that Mommy always says to you? Um, All sorts of things.
24. What is something that Daddy always says to you? Well...he always says maybe.
25. What is love? Love is loving someone and wanting to marry them. It's when you like someone,  and you like to hang out with them.


Norah's Interview(Norah sits confidently on the barstool, no fidgeting, saying "Mmm..." before she answers every question. Lots of grinning.)

1. How old are you? 4 and a half.
2. What makes you happy? When Mama's being nice to me. (I then asked if I was mean to her a lot...she said yeah, sometimes.) :(
3. What makes you sad? When Evie's mean to me and she won't play with me. That makes me sad.
4. What makes you laugh? Funny jokes. Like, where did the robin go to brush his teeth? The dentist! The red robin goes to a tree, and they use a branch for a toothbrush. And when it snows they use snow for the toothpaste. That's a funny joke.
5. What do you like to draw? Pretty ballerinas and princesses.
6. How old is Mommy? 28.
7. How old is Daddy? 33. I mean 34.
8. What is your favorite thing to do? To do a headstand on the couch.
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? A gymnastics teacher. Because I'm good at gym stuff. Like headstands and flips.
10. What are you really good at? Gymnastics.
11. What is your favorite food? Pizza.
12. What is your favorite Christmas song? We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
13. What do you hope you get for Christmas? A doll that's Chelsea from Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. I would also want a Dora doll but I can't have it. Maybe I'll get it.
14. What does Daddy do for work? He does work at the lodge. That's the only thing I could think of.
15. What does Mommy do for work? Wash the dishes. And I help you sometimes.
16. Do you know why we have Christmas? Uh-huh. Christmas is because we celebrate when Jesus was born.
17. Where do you live? Victory Bible Camp.
18. Where is your favorite place to go? Chuck E. Cheese.
19. What are you going to do on Christmas? Well, on Christmas we're going to go to Grammie's house, and I'm going to ask Grammie if we can go jump on Levi and yell WAKE UP! Because Levi always sleeps in, Mommy.20. Who are your friends? Kannika and the people that Evie said. The boys are kind of my friends.
21. What is your favorite thing about bathtime? Playing with the toys in the hot water.
22. What are your favorite books? Jack and the Beanstalk. I like You Choose. And Beatrix Potter.
23. What is something that Mommy always says to you? Norah Aubrey. When I'm being bad that's what you say to me.
24. What is something that Daddy always says to you? He says a lot of stuff.
25. What is love? Hugging someone and kissing them. 



Grady's Interview(Grady does not sit at all, but scoots across the back of the couch, dive bombs onto Mom, and climbs on and off the arms of the couch.)
1. How old are you? Uh, Grady. I'm two.
2. What makes you happy? Daddy.
3. What makes you sad? I don't know.
4. What makes you laugh? I don't know.
5. What do you like to draw?  Paper.
6. How old is Mommy? I don't know.
7. How old is Daddy? Two. Two and a half.
8. What is your favorite thing to do? Toilet paper.
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? I'm gonna do basketball and hockey.
10. What are you really good at? Basketball and hockey.
11. What is your favorite food? Water.
12. What is your favorite Christmas song? Merry Mommy Christmas.
13. What do you hope you get for Christmas? A car.
14. What does Daddy do for work? Words.
15. What does Mommy do for work? I don't know.
16. Do you know why we have Christmas? Yes. I don't like Christmas.
17. Where do you live? In a house.
18. Where is your favorite place to go? to Mommy.
19. What are you going to do on Christmas? I don't know.20. Who are your friends? Daddy. Evie. Norah. Daddy.
21. What is your favorite thing about bathtime? Play with toys in the bathtub.
22. What are your favorite books? Moose a Muffin. Duck Duck Moose. Fump Quack Moo. (Thump Quack Moo)
23. What is something that Mommy always says to you? Happy Birthday Mommy.
24. What is something that Daddy always says to you? Happy Birthday.

25. What is love? I don't know.

October 31st Update

Here is a quick update for you! If you're a supporter, we've been making phone calls and we should get to you eventually on a more personal level. :)
Justin has applied for lots of youth pastor jobs and we've been at various stages in process with various churches, but so far nothing has gone all the way through. We're fine with that because we want to wait patiently for the church that God is preparing us for! We're praying that we can go someplace that we can truly fill a need, and I hope you'll pray that too if you think of us.

In the meantime, God is teaching us to wait well, and I believe we're learning!

Sibling fun. Nothing ever beats a cardboard box for endless possibilities!

We carved pumpkins last week and Grady wasn't too sure about the knifey, slimy process.

Evie was super brave this year and scooped out handfuls of pumpkin guts without any encouragement! If you know Evie, that is impressive. She is really growing up lately and has started showing an interest in cooking. She baked her own cake the other day! (With a little help from mom at the oven ;) )

The finished product

School is going well this year...so well, in fact, that I'm watching the skies to see when they fall. ;) Seriously though, we have established a routine and it's pretty great to see the kids having so much fun! (And learning at the same time!)

Norah shows us her new paintbrush. This little woman is so content and astonishes me daily with her brilliance! She will move mountains someday, I truly believe. :)


Here are some ways you can be praying right now:-Please pray for Justin as we continue to go through the job search process. Pray for wisdom and clarity in choosing where to apply as well!
-Pray for Grady, who has an unknown tummy ailment. We already checked into anything bacterial/parasitic and everything came back clean. Next we'll check into food allergies (we already know he has some). He sees the doctor next week so pray for wisdom! Thankfully he's acting fine and appears healthy otherwise.
-Pray for Norah as well...her eczema is back and it's angry. It had cleared up beautifully this summer with taking off all her allergens. We waited a few months, worked some of those things back into her diet, and everything was fine for another few months. Then with winter coming on, it's back again. We're very confused! And she's very itchy and irritated! :(
-Continue to pray for camp with continued changes and staff turnover. Victory is especially in need of a Camp Director and a Program Director.

THANK YOU!!

September 24th Update

We are officially in fall/winter mode! We've started school and all other things winter.
At least one of our kids is excited to have started AWANA! Just kidding. Evie is loving Sparks, Norah is loving Cubbies, and Grady is super excited to be a Puggle this year at our AWANA club. Justin is commander again this year and I am enjoying teaching Grady and a couple other awesome little boys in Puggles!

This is the view of Victory Peak from our backyard. The leaves are falling fast! Soon this will be all bare branches! The thermometer this morning at our house said 28 degrees. Brrrr!

Creative, kooky Evie made herself a robot costume. You know it's getting cold outside when our kids find these types of ways to amuse themselves during long days spent inside!

On a family hike up Teepee Ridge to look at the fall colors. Grady has learned how to smile on command!

Family pose on a fallen tree

Mercedes and Dagonet love to hike and tag along on our family adventures. Dagonet (our shepherd mix) is getting old, though-- we have to lift him into the car now, and he can't keep up with the 4-wheeler anymore. 

A bunch of hams!

We got picked for the road lottery into Denali National Park and got to drive our own vehicle in the 60 miles to the visitor's center rather than ride the park bus, which is usually the only way to get in. Here the kids have conquered a grizzly. ;)

We visited the Park Headquarters sled dog team! Evie loved Sylvie the dog because she was so quiet and mellow. Evie doesn't do unpredictable. ;)

Sad day! No pets allowed! We told Evie she'd have to stay behind. It's fun to introduce the oldest jokes in the book to your kids and they actually think they're funny!

In most of AK it's still fall, but at the higher elevation inside the park, it is most definitely winter. And beautiful.

A happy Norah going for a short hike in the snow.

We saw ground squirrels, a hawk, bull and cow moose, lots of dall sheep, and grizzlies. We also got to see a standoff between a bear and some sheep as the flock of sheep tried to pass the mountain slope that the bear was on. It was exciting! Who knew a bear could be intimidated by sheep?

A bunch of happy campers at Eielson visitor center! You would never know they were bribed to smile with the promise of a piece of chocolate....:)


Here's what's new with us right now...
You might remember in our past few blog posts that we've asked for prayer both for us and Victory Ministries as there has been a lot of transition here at camp lately. There have indeed been lots of changes and we've come to see a lot of this as growing pains. We believe God is changing Victory, and we know He is working in the lives of everyone here. Without going into deep detail because that would take an entire blog post of its own, we need to tell you that through months of prayer, seeking God's face, some heartache, and a lot of excitement over the mystery of God's good plan, we have made the choice to leave Victory. This isn't what we saw happening when we first moved here three years ago. But it's yet another way that God is showing us that He has a plan for us.

In some very cool ways, we have felt God working in both Justin's and my life and we have heard Him speak very clearly to us. We both know that we are being led to invest our hearts and lives in a church somewhere, and Justin's role needs to be that of a Youth Pastor. While we don't have a specific church that we will be moving to yet, we are in process with a couple of places to see if that is where God would have us minister. Most likely this will mean we'll be moving out of Alaska. Until then, we are fully and wholeheartedly continuing to serve at Victory.
 We're planning to personally make phone calls to each of our supporters in the coming weeks to chat about this period of transition, but if you want to speak to us sooner or even if you're not a supporter and just have questions, please feel free to facebook, email, or call us. Here's our contact info:
Justin's email: justinscotthostetter@gmail.com
Lynsey's email: lynseyhostetter@gmail.com
Our home number: 907-746-5304

Please continue to pray for Victory...God is most definitely at work here! Here are a few requests that we'd ask you to keep in mind and in your prayers:
-Please pray for staff unity. There has been a huge staff turnover and that means that God will be bringing new people to Victory to fill those empty roles. Pray that the Victory staff team will continue to have one purpose, and that purpose would be to love God and others and show the overwhelming love of Christ to everyone who comes on the grounds.
-Pray for Nadine Gillespie, one of the founders of Victory. She is an astounding 95 years of age and is just now beginning to have a lot of the physical troubles that come with living such a long and fruitful life! She isn't able to be home at Victory right now because of several small strokes that have impaired her quite a bit. Pray for peace for Nadine, for wisdom for her family to know how to best help her, and for Nadine's health to improve.
-Pray for our barn manager, Doug Thiessen. Doug has had issues in the past with bleeding spots on his brain, and most recently had surgery to fix one spot. In some unanticipated turns, Doug's health has not improved like doctors assumed it would, and instead it's gotten worse. Speech and walking are almost impossible for Doug right now and this makes everyone's world turn upside down. It's been absolutely incredible to see Doug's joyful heart through it all and to see him and his family leaning on God. But please pray for a miracle!
-Please pray that God would show us in His good timing where He's sending us. We want to live our lives in a way that blesses others and brings glory to Him. Pray we can continue to do that here at Victory until we leave.

End of Summer Update

Summer camp has ended and we are well into our conference season here at Victory!
August has been an incredibly busy month for Justin because we are short handed on the Guest Services front. Everyone has been wonderful about picking up slack but because August is one of our busiest (or the busiest) month for guest groups, it still means many hours and long days for everyone working. We are nearing the end of the month now and getting ready for blackout week, when we purposely schedule no groups, so that anyone who wants time off can get it.

Here's a quick recap of the second half of the summer!

Justin spoke at chapel here and there during a couple of weeks of camp. We had no scheduled speaker so the camp staff took turns speaking on different topics each night. I always love watching my husband speak because he may not fully realize it but he's a gifted preacher! :) I wish I could have captured the energy of evening chapel in a photo. It is awesome to have so many young people in one place and watch God be lifted high in singing and in talking about Him and in just having a ton of random fun! You know it's a good place to be when we arrive at Spruce Lodge and Grady starts yelling "CHAPEL TIME!"

I got to fill in at the gift shop and run espresso for several days. It is one of my favorite things to do around camp because not only do I get to make espresso and enjoy the incredible smells all day, I get to interact with campers and staff that I normally wouldn't see as much. I love talking to people and making them happy with coffee!

Evie lost her top two teeth over the last month. She now has an adorable gappy smile and she somehow still manages to say her S's the same and not lisp. She's preparing now to go into 2nd grade and she is counting down the days till we start school! Tonight we begin the AWANA year at church and she's celebrating the fact that this is her last year of Sparks and next year she'll be in T&T!

We capped off the summer with a formal staff dinner (which I didn't get pictures of because I was home sick :( ) and then a bonfire at the Matanuska River. It was definitely as cold as it looks and I for one was thankful for a huge fire to stand around! 

Both Evie and Norah got swimmer's itch this summer....TWICE. Once from both lakes here at camp. We then determined that neither lake was safe and so ended our swimming career for the summer! But seriously, don't let Evie's thumbs-up fool you. It was several days of misery each time they caught it, with endless itching and waking mom and dad up in the middle of the night to apply itch cream multiple times. What a huge bummer!

Another photo of the bonfire at the river. I'm not sure why they're out of order but I try not to wade too deep into technology because I'll never find my way back. :P

Early morning fog lifting off the pond outside our house. We had higher than average temperatures for June, a normal July, and a chilly August.

Norah shows her marshmallow at the river bonfire. She looks cold! Norah is about to start preschool which she's very excited about. She will get to do big-kid school time with Evie. She's also about to begin her second year of Cubbies.

The IDEA homeschool group had family camp here at the beginning of the month. It wasn't much of a retreat for us since we live here, ;) but we did get to do horse rides. The kids were super excited!

If you look closely you can see the blue lollipop smooch on my cheek from Grady's kisses. This boy just turned two! He enriches all our lives every single day. He is most definitely the clown of the family and loves to make us laugh. He is also a great communicator for someone so small and a very compassionate little boy! He always has a glint of mischief in his eye!

We had a nice hot day and the girls decided to do a lemonade stand. They made two whole dollars!!

A peaceful evening on Shallow Lake. There is no summer like an Alaskan summer!

Grady's first horse ride! This horse is named Gold Digger and is also the horse that Evie rode when she had her very first horse ride several years ago! Grady got a little nervous when we put him up there, but he was beyond excited and talked about it for a long time!

We took a family trip on one of Justin's days off and went day camping at Eklutna Lake. We 4-wheeled, hiked around a little bit, threw rocks in the lake, made mud pies, and cooked over a fire. It sprinkled rain on us off and on but it didn't stop us from having a fantastically fun day!

This little mama had her 7th birthday last week. We had a double party for her and Grady since their birthdays are 4 days apart. But we still put candles on every food we could and sang happy birthday several times on their own special day!

Evie made homemade party favors/thank you notes and a decorative hanger and sign. Perhaps she has a future in event planning?

Birthday boy shows daddy his ice cream. Notice the frosting on the cupcake is all licked off. ;)

Birthday boy is happy to be eating pizza for dinner.

Evie's dear friends Alison and Lucy at the birthday party

I'm not sure if you can tell in the picture but the trees higher up are yellow! We're getting an early fall this year and many of the trees around camp are yellow and the road is already dotted with fallen leaves. I'm not quite ready to let go of summer yet but winter is coming, ready or not!
All in all we had a great summer. I wanted to share a couple of stories from this summer. We keep a book in the staff lounge for counselors and staff to write the awesome things God has been doing over the summer. Here are just a couple of stories. Praise God for the awesome works He's doing in the lives of young people!


This past week I had a really difficult bunch of campers who came from some tough family backgrounds.  Two of them were sisters and the older one struggled with an eating disorder.  She told me she didn’t believe in God because when she had prayed that her parents would stay together, He didn’t answer and they still divorced.  Throughout the week I kept on telling her that God loved her no matter what and that even if she didn’t believe in Him, He would keep pursuing her.  Dori and Hail also talked to her a lot and at the end of the week she rededicated her life to Christ.  I could definitely see a change in her at the end of the week – when other campers started arguing and crying; she’d pull them aside and ask to pray with them.  Also, in our last cabin discussion, she got up in front of the campers and talked about what God had done in her life that week and how He saved her.  She’s still a work in progress and it broke my heart that she and her sister had to return to a really difficult, broken home, but I know she’s in God’s hands.  Praise God for His reckless love!

I’m writing this because I feel that God wants me to.  I’m activities and one time while I was at a campout doing a game I sat down next to a girl.  She was one of the Adventure girls in week 6.  We started to talk about our families and she shared about her past.  She has had a hard background and I asked her about if she believed in the Lord and she said she believed there was a God, just because her grandma said so.  I told her that she has to do her own evidence.  I sat with her on the porch for lunch the next two days and we had a solid talk about God, life, etc.  On Thursday evening she rededicated her life.  I was so thrilled.  I gave her a Bible and she has already been reading and showing in her actions that she is a new person.

Mid-summer Update

                           

We have reached the midway point of our summer camps already! It's unbelievable how fast the time flies by!! It has been a great summer so far. We've been very fortunate to have avoided the smoke from Alaska's hundreds of forest fires. We are thankful that God has been gracious enough to allow us that! We are also in prayer for other camps who have had to cancel or had their camps threatened.

Evie goes for her first ride on a dirt bike with our friends Evan and Elizabeth, who are engaged. Evie and Norah love giving Evan a hard time any chance they get! We laugh because our kids go into wild animal mode any time these two come over. :) I think it's because they love them a lot.

We've never had actual portraits of our kids done; we usually rely on snapshots, even for framed photos at home. But it's crazy how much time I let slip by sometimes without really capturing their little faces on purpose! .....*Ahem.....a year*......so we did an (extremely) amateur photo shoot the other day. Here's Grady being his regular impish self.

Thinking he's such a big boy!

My pretty Evie is growing up so fast! She went to her very first week of camp at the end of June and had a blast! (Though I don't think she slept much!) She is a deeply philosophical soul and always asks me questions I have trouble answering. Right now she's decided she'd like to be a teacher when she grows up...or a professional dancer. I think she'd excel at both!

Here is my feisty, spunky, intelligent, deeply intellectual, soft-hearted, crusty-shelled, creative, driven Norah. I would need so many more adjectives to describe her! She is learning nowadays what it means to be a big sister to Grady and set a good example, and she is becoming more and more of Mommy's helper too.

Being goofy. You gotta have at least one of these shots!

On Sunday afternoons, when new campers come, everyone waits outside Miracle Lodge with music, a bounce house, and dancing and playing to meet the incoming campers and the bus. Norah usually contentedly draws with sidewalk chalk for around an hour!

We have two boards in the chapel where, at the end of the week, campers are invited to write down what God has taught them during the week, or write whether they've made a decision to give their life to Christ or rededicate it. It's wonderful to see the numbers of small papers growing and covering the boards each progressive week!

Daddy isn't home a ton in the summer, which means we usually go out and about to find him! But when he IS home, he's in high demand! When I took this picture, all three were yelling "MY Daddy!" (Grady's in that awesome mimicking stage where he'll repeat anything the girls are saying!)

We went on our staff trip last week, to Seward, with the summer staff. Hopefully it was a time for the counselors and other staff to renew and refresh, and reflect on what has happened so far this summer and how God wants them to continue to serve Him in the second half.

 It was awesome to walk down by the lake today and see one of the counselors sitting out of the game to talk one-on-one with her camper and overhear her telling about how Jesus came to be the ultimate sacrifice for sins, the Lamb of God, once and for all. In the midst of real life and running around playing games, God is changing lives here! And I am so thankful He does!

Here are some ways you can be praying right now:

-Pray for health and energy for the summer staff. Right now is when a full month of late nights and early mornings, combined with mental and emotional stress (or just plain busyness) really catches up to everyone! Pray for a deep sense of purpose, and for the Holy Spirit to give motivation to those who are struggling!

-Pray for our barn manager, Doug, who has had bleeding on his brain and a past surgery, and now has the same issue arising again. He goes for surgery next week and there a lot of unknowns for when he comes out. Pray for health and strength for him, and his biggest prayer request was that he can be a good witness for the Lord to the doctors and nurses he meets. Pray for peace and reassurance for his family. Pray for the doctors to have wisdom that's supernatural. Pray also for Caleb, a staff member here who will be taking Doug's place for the time being.

-Pray especially this week for an unnamed camper who is heavy on my heart right now. This camper is very unreceptive to the gospel and doesn't like to hear about Jesus. Pray for God to break into this camper's life! Pray that they will have a desire to know who Jesus is! Pray also for a gentle heart and patience and discernment for this camper's counselor.

-Pray for other camps that have been affected by the forest fires. Pray that the forest fires can come under control of the fire fighters, and pray for safety for those working on containment. Pray that it continues to stay away from VBC!

Thank you for all your prayers! They are so needed! Isn't it amazing that we can come before the God of the universe, make requests, and He hears AND answers us?!